Medieval Roundel — A Narrowing Down of Possibilities

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/199854/shaffron

My hunt for parallels for this tricky to identify object, and especially those that were indeed horse trappings, led to period pony armour and strap fitments. 

The little spikes that I'd seen depicted on the heads of horses in illustrations of medieval jousters turned out to be part of the chanfron (or also spelled chaffron, chamfron, champion, chamfron, chamfrein, champron, and shaffron) — the armour that protected the head of the horse from the blow of the lance.

https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/856910

Then an extensive search of the Portable Antiquities Scheme Database threw up a number of period British roundels of similar large size. Almost all candidates were composite specimens with separate assembled parts but often with differing means of attachment to the host object.  

However, only a few examples shared many features in common with my own.

Above is an example that does. It hails from Surrey, and is very similar to the example from Essex mentioned in my previous post on this subject. It too is of three part construction—the faceplate and integral frame, backplate and single central rivet. All components are of copper alloy excepting the rivet which is iron.

The rest are listed here.

Wanborough

Chickerell

Heckfield

North Dalton

Wellow

Great Waltham

Mixbury

Colyton

 

I think that these examples could all be separated into two classes by the means of attachment alone. Some have three or four rivet points arranged around the circumference, and others just the one at centre.

Now. 

'Host objects'? 

What they might have been is a matter for conjecture...

That they were attached is certain — but to what is not!

But means of attachment always helps somewhat. 

Egan and Pritchard in 'Medieval Dress Accessories' view these as either part of sword belts or as martingale brasses. A huge gap of confidence here and they cannot make their minds up and for unsurprising reasons...

No doubt, that in their narrowing down of possibilities, they had also viewed such confounding things as the period illustration above that shows us a number of alternative uses for our roundels. 

We have here the shaffron, the bridle bit, and the right arm and hand of the knight shown at right. 

All could have possessed roundels!

My instinct is that that those roundels we have seen here with multiple rivets (and often roves) were attached to flexible leather straps or belts, whilst those with a long single central rivet were attached through a solid metal plate or even a wooden plank.

In conclusion

My hunt for answers to the "what exactly is this" question has lead so far toward roundels that could be from various parts of horse or human armour or were a dress accessory — a knight's belt mount to be precise. However, that it was once 'attached' to a sentient being and not to a wooden object of some sort — a chest perhaps, or even a vehicle...?

Not even that is certain — as yet!

I have come across only the one British find of an unequivocal  'chamfrein'. and it argues with all the other candidates here for the title.  This definitely was from the horses head. It is really large — 8cm or so. My roundel is quite a large item and so are the others discussed here but this is simply huge by comparison with all of them and this fact must be taken into account.

Widworthy

Also, its construction is quite unlike the roundels discussed so far in this series. It is not nearly so elaborate or as fine as those. They are all jewellers work — but this is armourer or even blacksmith work. 

There's a piece of thin sheet metal that has been worked to form a circular plate with an octagonal decorative scheme of ridge and furrow — just like a partially folded umbrella.

There's a central conical boss, which, from the illustration above, seems to be soldered to two lengths of wire — though it may be one length bent double. And at reverse, a rove to securely fasten the piece to the head armour.

This British example (from Widworthy) is identical in form and construction to many continental examples, and especially those made in Italy. However, this particular form was not the only one in use. Other types, smaller and more compact, have been seen in my image trawling...

And so the search continues!

Walters Art Museum Italian example 

Medieval Roundel — A Thames Foreshore Surprise.

Queenhithe Dock, City of London

Some years ago, I lived in London and in addition to being a hopeless detecting addict, I was also an avid Thames Mudlark. I specialised in searching the City stretches, and on these the most scoured areas of all, I never used a metal detector once. 

My sport there was strictly 'eyes only'. 

I guess I just loved beating tide, time and waiting for no man.

Everything but the seashells there were the ruined works of mankind. And that included my swanky West-End boots...

One of the key rules of 'eyes-only' searching is that you must investigate anything remotely interesting... 

Well, I was at Queenhithe Dock one day, and was chasing the tideline down as the water fell....

When,...

I saw in the mud and shingle, what looked like a unusually large iron washer! 

And of course, it was remotely interesting. 

And so I flipped it over... 

Diameter 53.7mm — thickness 7mm. The bright colour of the brass is known as 'Thames gilding'. It is not gilt though. The appearance is formed during a very long period of burial within a sealed matrix of oxygen free mud. Without oxygen (quickly used up entirely by microbes) oxidation, and therefore corrosion, cannot occur.

Mother! This was no washer!

It was pretty sizeable and quite heavy too. The metals were in an excellent state of preservation but unfortunately was crushed and mangled. 

Of Late-Medieval edging into early Post-Medieval date, no doubt.

Henry VIII...  

However, when I'd given it a tideline wash and examined the piece more closely I could see that it was work of the highest quality imaginable, was made by a very skilled craftsman indeed and would have cost a pretty penny to its long deceased owner. 

The face of the piece is formed from a single sheet of extremely thin brass. So very thin is it that I cannot accurately measure — but it is around the 0.2 mm mark and certainly no thicker. The backplate is a comparatively thick piece of slightly dished iron. 2mm thick perhaps. The techniques used in its creation were repoussé, chasing and embossing. Repoussé is the hammering of metal up from behind — chasing and embossing hammering down from the front. 

Expertly done the results can be astonishing. 

The design is not a Tudor rose, though it has some similarities to one of those. It reminds me of church windows of the earlier Medieval years. 

Let's call it a quatrefoil. 

PAS record Fingringhoe

My first thoughts were, "horse". I haver never doubted this. I thought that it may have fallen from harness and had been crushed by a cartwheel. Though the damage looks to be really severe, the forces required to damage such thin metal would not have been so very great, would they? 

As always, I went on a research bender...

The closest parallel that I found was another Medieval roundel from my home turf of Essex and near to my childhood Mersea Island paradise. The overall size is very similar and the technique of wrapping the edge of the brass over a backplate of iron identical. 

Also the backplate looks be dished and there's a long rivet like projection on the reverse. This does not however pass through the front plate as it does with the piece under scrutiny here.

Unfortunately, all I found at the time of discovery was the photo of it above which contained some useful information but not nearly enough. I could could not trace more. 

Jousters to the max! 1546 date. That's the ballpark...

It did look to be, perhaps, an item of armour. 

I went on a long, long hunt for an answer, trawling through entire manuals, manuscripts and pictorial accounts of knights and jousters and their armour. Nothing similar was seen in many moons but then I spied something that threw me sideways... 

What are those little spikes on the horse's brows? 

And... Should I be looking at horse armour too?